The title above pretty much describes why it has taken us a month to post another entry on this Blog.
As planned, we did transit to Santa Domingo, met Patty and Terry from Mystique and Karen and Roger from Meridien, had Patty's birthday party, met all the folks on Wendaway, Airops, Far Country among others and were swept up into a run of beach walks, shelling and even a fun evening beach party. Wendy from Wendaway gave us a huge collection of shells to give to Amber as souvenirs since she won't have a chance to visit the beaches where shells are in abundance. Vlasta from Far Country met us on the beach one morning and gave us Jingle shells for Amber, along with some other treasures.
Mystique and Meridien went up to Santa Rosalia and we followed a day later for more provisions and to spend a last day with good old friends. While there I (Marlene) got a pretty good haircut and hope we have time to stop on our way home for a trim. We said "haste luego" to the two M boats as they crossed the Sea to San Carlos to put their boats away until next season.
We continued on to Isla San Marcos where we met up with Airops, Far Country and Wendaway. Dave and Merry from Airops came over one evening for a potluck and brought me two pair of beautiful shell earrings that Merry made -- for pierced ears. Now I just have to go and get it done -- after years of procrastinating -- I just love these earrings -- so I will do it! Thanks to Merry for the incentive! We had several evening get-togethers, getting to know each other, sharing life stories and current passions. One passion shared by many of us is "weather." Mark from Wendaway has a contact at NOAA who is developing a newer, better, weather forecasting system for the Eastern Pacific. Mark got us in touch with him and now lots of conversation, email and radio time is spent analyzing and talking about weather.
All four boats made it back to either Punta Chivato or Santo Domingo for more beach walks, shelling, and parties. Roy has perfected his Margaritas, and we all enjoyed them on several occasions. We still drink lots of fizzy mineral water as well, needing to keep well hydrated in this dry climate. From there we migrated to San Juanico for only one night since strong winds were predicted and we needed to get to better protection. We separated from the group and sailed in very brisk 15-20 winds to Punta Colorada for a few nights and then we went Puerto Escondido for Loreto Fest where Roy conducted a seminar on Medicine for Cruisers.
We returned to Isla Coronados (our home away from home), and the parties resumed! An extended Happy Hour on Wendaway on Sunday, a superb spaghetti dinner hosted by Clarence and Sharon on Lotus on Monday. We invited Wendy and Mark and Vlasta and Gordo and Merry and Dave for a bagel breakfast on Tuesday morning (I made them on Monday) -- a thank you to all of them for welcoming us into their lives, for sharing their love of shelling and giving us so many wonderful mementos and memories. Alas, time came for Wendaway and Airops to head toward home -- we look forward to seeing them next season.
The next day, we took Damiana over to Loreto for provisions and invited Vlasta and Gordo (Far Country) to join us. As it turns out, Peggy and Don from Interlude finally arrived from the mainland -- we met at the roadstead, shopped, had lunch and then all came back to Isla Coronados. For several days in a row we had gorgeous beach weather, even played Bocce Ball. Gordo taught me some techniques so that I was finally able to score some points. We, of course, had evening get-togethers, dinner on Damiana on Thursday, dinner aboard Far Country last Friday, and then on Saturday we had craft day aboard Damiana followed by an informal potluck. On Sunday, while playing Bocce Ball some Mexicans joined us -- apparently never having played it and they did very well!
Today is Wednesday, day three of a "wind event" here in the Sea of Cortez, winds in excess of 20 kts, but we expect high winds again tomorrow. On Monday we moved to the south side of the island which has better protection from north winds. We hiked from this beach to the other side Monday morning and again on Tuesday morning, before the winds picked up around 11 a.m. We finally were in the same anchorage as Spirit Quest; Kathy and Doug invited us over for a delicious fish dinner on Monday -- was nice to visit and spend time with them on their beautiful boat.
With winds expected to lay down tomorrow evening, we have plans to go to a nearby restaurant on the beach on Friday.
Just like we said, TOO MUCH FUN!!!!
~~~ Marlene and Roy ~~_/) ~~
